1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing control apparatus that performs multiple copy printing.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a conventional technique that is employable in a case where multiple copy printing of the same page is designated as a print request. The conventional technique includes generating print data that can be processed by a printer and storing the generated print data in a storage area of a hard disk. The conventional technique further includes referring to the print data having been already generated for the rest of print processing in the multiple copy printing.
According to the above-conventional technique, it is unnecessary to generate print data repetitively when printing of the same page is performed plural times. Therefore, print processing for the second and subsequent copies can be accomplished quickly.
For example, the multiple copy printing can be realized by an uncollating method according to which continuously printing a required number of multiple copies of the same page is prioritized. For example, in a case where printing of two copies of a set of three pages is designated, the uncollating method controls the print processing to perform printing of page 1, page 1, page 2, page 2, page 3, and page 3 in this order.
The multiple copy printing can be also realized by a collating method according to which printing sequential pages of a print job as one complete copy is prioritized. For example, in a case where printing of two copies of a set of three pages is designated, the collating method controls the print processing to perform printing of page 1, page 2, page 3, page 1, page 2, and page 3 in this order.
In a case where the above-described uncollating method is employed for the multiple copy printing, a printer continuously performs printing of the same page. Therefore, according to the above-described procedure for storing print data and later referring to the stored print data, the print data to be stored temporarily is limited to only one page.
On the other hand, in a case where the above-described collating method is employed for the multiple copy printing, print data having been generated for the first copy is reused plural times in the print processing of second and subsequent copies. Therefore, the collating method requires temporarily storing print data of all pages included in each job. Therefore, in a case where a job includes numerous pages, all of the print data may not be wholly stored in a host computer or in a storage area of a printer.
To solve the above-described problem, another conventional technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-244308 includes generating print data of the present page in a temporary storage area and then copying the temporarily generated print data to a free space of a storage area only when the free space is available for storage of the generated print data.
However, the above-described conventional technique is not directed to a personal computer (PC) that executes parallel processing of a plurality of applications or processes. In such an environment, it is difficult to exclusively use the storage area for the storage of print data.
Further, according to the above-described conventional technique, print data of one page is first generated in a temporary storage area. However, the storage area of an ordinary PC is shared for various applications. Therefore, if the storage area is in a congested state, even generating print data of only one page may be difficult.